Ellen Lupton is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. An author of numerous books and articles on design, she is a public-minded critic, frequent lecturer, and AIGA Gold Medalist. Read More

Below is a list of exhibitions curated by Ellen Lupton, 1986 to the present. Many of these projects also included a published exhibition catalog. Each exhibition is a collaborative effort involving other designers, architects, writers, curators, conservators, educators, and other museum professionals. Curating is a critical and visual practice that uses research, writing, and design to tell stories with objects and images. Design is a key component of the curatorial process.

Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500–2005. May–October, 2006. The evolution of dining through the design of flatware.
Solos: New Design from Israel. January–April 2006. Survey of experimental objects and furniture created in Israel. Curated with Ezri Tarazi.

Skin: Surface, Substance and Design. May-September, 2002. Looks at the convergence of natural and artificial life as seen in contemporary furniture, fashion, architecture, and media.
National Design Triennial: Design Culture Now. March-August 2000. Review of recent developments in architecture, graphic design, and product design, co-curated with Donald Albrecht and Steven Skov Holt.

Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age: Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection. Winter 1999. Organized in association with Williams College Museum of Art.
Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture. Fall, 1996/Winter 1997. Critical survey of graphic design in the United States between 1980 and 1995, focusing on aesthetic, cultural, and technological changes.

The Avant-Garde Letterhead. Spring, 1996. Organized by the National Design Museum and presented at the national headquarters of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York. Co-curated with Elaine Lustig Cohen.

Elaine Lustig Cohen, Modern Graphic Designer. February 7 – May 23, 1995. Monographic exhibition on a designer active in the 1950s and 60s.
Living with AIDS: Education through Design. December 1, 1993 – January 2, 1994. A national survey of contemporary AIDS posters addressed to diverse audiences, including women, children, people of color, and straight and gay men.

Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines, from Home to Office. August 1993 – January 1994. An exhibition about the design and representation of objects which have been central to women’s work in the twentieth century, including the telephone, typewriter, washing machine, and electric iron. The exhibition travelled to the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, Spring 1994.

INDEPENDENT CURATOR

Framing the Art of Jewelry. August 2007. “Exhibition in Print” for Metalsmith magazine, the publication of the Society of North American Goldsmiths. Exhibition held at SOFA/Chicago (2007) and Museum of Contemporary Crafts, Portland, OR (2008).

Swarm. December 2005–March 2006. The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. Works of contemporary art and design that reflect the logic of the swarm (simple structures yielding complexity).

The Process of Elimination: The Bathroom, the Kitchen, and the Aesthetics of Waste. May-August 1992. MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge. Co-curated with J. Abbott Miller. This exhibition looked at the history of the American bathroom and kitchen, 1890-1940, in relation to the rise of a consumer economy.

CURATOR, THE HERB LUBALIN STUDY CENTER, THE COOPER UNION

(selected projects)

Graphic Design in the Netherlands: A View of Recent Work. January 1992. Exhibition of posters, books, stamps, and corporate identity by emerging Dutch designers.

The Bauhaus and Design Theory, from Preschool to Post-Modernism. April 1991. Co-curated with J. Abbott Miller.

Dennis Livingston: Social Graphics. October 1990. The information graphics of a social activist.
Writing and the Body. April 1990. Curated with three design students, who examined the history of writing, sign language for the deaf, and AIDS in advertising.

Anthon Beeke’s Stage: Holland’s Illusionist Poster Designer. February 1990. Posters, magazines, and other graphics from the 1970s and 80s.

Numbers. September 1989. Co-curated with Alan Wolf, professor of physics. The culture and science of numbers.

MIT/Casey. April 1989. Work by a prominent American modernist working from the 1960s through the 80s.

Period Styles: A History of Punctuation. March 1988. A typographic, grammatical, and literary history.

Global Signage: Semiotics and the Language of International Pictures. March 1986. The history and theory of modern pictographic sign systems.

The Avant-Garde Letterhead. Spring, 1996. Organized by the National Design Museum and presented at the national headquarters of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York. Co-curated with Elaine Lustig Cohen. Featuring original letterheads and ephemera by Herbert Bayer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Le Corbusier, and others, from the collection of Elaine Lustig Cohen. Exhibition designed by Ellen Lupton and Christine McKee.

Elaine Lustig Cohen, Modern Graphic Designer. Exhibition curated by Ellen Lupton. On view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, February 7 – May 23, 1995. This monographic exhibition presented the work of this pioneering woman designer, focusing on her groundbreaking work designing books, book covers, and signage during the 1950s and 60s. Exhibition designed by Ellen Lupton with Christine McKee.

Second Skin. Exhibition curated by Ellen Lupton. Presented by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum at Entry 2006, Essen, Germany, August 27–December 3, 2006. Exhibition designed and produced by Vitra Design Museum.

Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines, from Home to Office. Exhibition curated by Ellen Lupton with Sheri Sandler. On view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, August 1993 – January 1994. An exhibition about the design and representation of objects which have been central to women’s work in the twentieth century, including the telephone, typewriter, washing machine, and electric iron. The exhibition travelled to the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, Spring 1994. Exhibition designed by Ellen Lupton and Boym Studio.

Skin: Surface, Substance and Design. Exhibition curated by Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, May-September, 2002. The exhibition looked at the convergence of natural and artificial life as seen in contemporary furniture, fashion, architecture, and media. Exhibition design: ARO (Architecture Research Office)

Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture. Exhibition curated by Ellen Lupton. On view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Fall, 1996/Winter 1997. Critical survey of graphic design in the United States between 1980 and 1995, focusing on aesthetic, cultural, and technological changes. Exhibition designed by Kennedy and Violich Architects. Exhibition graphics designed by Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Roos, Frederick Gates, and Christine McKee.